Travelling Trouble
by swimtofly
Summary: The Sorting of 1978 was supposed to be like any other Sorting, until two aspiring pranksters wanted to meet the infamous and fantastical Marauders and meet the real family members instead of their portraits.


This was no normal ceremony. This was the last Sorting ceremony of the Marauders. They had to make it a good one. James was trying to stay out of trouble as Lily kept looking at him with a confused sort of expression on her face. His best friend and brother, Sirius Black was not trying to stay out of it. In fact, he was in the thick of it, as always. It seems that he was betting furiously with a Hufflepuff at the adjacent table over which little firsties would be in which house. McGonagall was eyeing him critically, hoping that Sirius would stop. Then she started to look to him, hoping that his best friend would stop him. James sighed, poked his friend and pointed toward the professors table where a tall Scottish woman was glaring at him and pursing her lips. It was almost guaranteed that Sirius had a detention.

James wasn't paying attention when a bright golden light developed in a corner corridor leading to the Great Hall. Everyone had seen it and when it went away, two boys: one red haired and one black haired, younger than Hogwarts age opened their eyes and smiled.

Everyone was in shock. Even Dumbledore who had no idea how to respond.

"WICKED! IT WORKED!" the two said excitedly and starting bounding toward the Professors table. The Marauders instantly stopped what they were doing. In fact, everyone, even the Sorting Hat stopped what he was doing. Lily looked completely surprised.

"Good Evening Gentleman, How can I help you?" Dumbledore said in a joking manner.

"OH MY MERLIN!" the red head said excitedly. "YOU'RE ALBUS DUMBLEDORE!"

"Really? I am?"

"Of course! I read about you on your Chocolate Frog Card. I have lots of you, and of course all my uncles and aunts. They got ones too!" the raven haired one said. The red head elbowed him. "What?" he asked.

"We were supposed to keep our mouths shut and just watch!"

"oops."

"Well, why do you have to keep your mouths shut and just watch?"Dumbledore questioned.

"Oh" the raven haired one said. Albus surmised that they were each about 7 years old. In fact, one looked eerily similar to James Potter. The boy leaned in close and whispered. "We stole Aunt Luna's new prototype time turner! We wanted to meet the Marauders!"

"Oh dear Lord!" Minerva McGonagall just sighed and rolled her eyes. Of course, they would. She surmised that they had to be related.

The raven haired one whispered into the red heads ear. "Oh and Lily too!" The red head said. Now this was interesting.

Albus just smiled. "What are your names? Then after, I'll let you go down and eat at Gryffindor table with them for the rest of the feast. Just don't say where you are from."

"Oh. Okay. Well my name is Fred Weasley the Second." He said full of pride. Dumbledore remembered that Molly Prewitt was expecting twins in April. None of her other children were named Fred.

"And what is yours?" Minerva McGonagall asked. The two boys looked up at her, finally. They got great big smiles on their faces.

"MINNIE" They screamed and hugged her. While the other Houses were too afraid to respond, the Gryffindors burst out in laughter. Only Sirius Black called her that name.

"My name is James Sirius Potter!" James said laughing. Whispering back to the professors, "We were both named after some of the greatest pranksters ever to have lived!"

Dumbledore saw Minerva's façade shattering at the cuteness and also the trouble these boys caused. "Alright, go on down there. I hope that you can find them."

The boys trounced down the stairs and ran down the Gryffindor side of the room. When Sirius, Remus, Peter and James were found to have two boys in awe of them, the room laughed even harder (except the Snakes which didn't laugh at anything).

"The Marauders!" The two boys whispered in awe. They came very close to James who, like everyone else, was staring at the mini-me. They watched as the boys then lifted up James hair on his forehead.

"No scar though." Fred said confused.

"Why would there be a scar?" Peter asked.

"Daddy has a scar in the shape of a lightning bolt!" That didn't really explain anything. Then they moved to Remus.

"He looks like him when he doesn't morph." Fred said sadly.

"Yeah. Teddy would have totally kept us from doing this though. I wish he could have come though."

"Yeah." Fred said sadly.

Then they moved to Sirius Black. He was giddy just because he was watching the interactions between the boys and his friends. "FRED," James whispered loudly. "ITS PADFOOT!"

"I KNOW!" in another excited and loud whisper.

"CAN YOU BELIEVE IT!?"

"NO!"

"ME NEITHER!"

Then another golden light came from the back of the room. When it receded, there was one very angry looking man, who looked an awful lot like James (again) and a curious looking woman with long blonde hair and a pale complexion.

"DAD!" "UNCLE HARRY?" they said in fear.

"AUNTIE LUNA?" they both said surprised.

Walking quickly toward the boys who were right in front of the Marauders, Harry realized exactly what the boys were doing and why they were doing it. They wanted to meet the real people instead of the portraits. He hadn't told them why just yet. At just seven, he didn't really want to tell his son about death. Hell, when he told Teddy he wasn't prepared as a father and it took Ginny to sort everything out. But he was determined to do it right and it seemed that he had failed again. To be a freaking Master of Death and to not be able to discuss it with his sons, well he just didn't want them to be less innocent of the world.

"JAMES SIRIUS POTTER!" The black haired boy lowered his head while James and Sirius looked at each other with giddy smiles but also in complete awe. "YOU TOOK AUNT LUNA'S TIME MODIFIER. YOU KNEW EXACTLY WHAT YOU WERE DOING! YOUR MOTHER IS WORRIED SICK! I LEARNED FROM OF ALL PEOPLE, SNAPE'S PORTRAIT. HE ACTUALLY SEEMED CONCERNED! THAT NEVER HAPPENS!" the boy could have melted into the ground. There was a slight movement over by the snakes table. Definite surprise.

"AND FRED GEORGE WEASLEY, YOUR MOTHER WANTS TO GROUND YOU AND YOUR DAD WANTS TO CONGRATULATE YOU! BUT DON'T THINK FOR A MOMENT THAT YOU ARE GETTING OUT OF THIS ONE!"

"Yes Uncle Harry." "Sorry Daddy."

Everyone watched as the two boys were on the cusp of crying while the adult closed his eyes and calmed down. He bent down to their level.

"I know you wanted to meet them and I am sorry that you shouldn't have been able to. You could have been in lots of danger."

"Danger like when you killed the bad man?" James asked scared to speak. The Marauders, Lily and others were surprised by the statement coming out of the words of a seven year old.

Harry sighed. "You found chocolate frog cards about me didn't you? And the rest of the family?"

The two boys sighed. "We stole them from Teddy when he came back home from Hogwarts at Christmas." Harry pulled them close and hugged them both. He was terrified of their being here. He opened his eyes and saw his mother staring back at him. He never realized how vibrant of a person she was. There was some odd recognition in her face. She must have noticed how similar the eyes were that were staring back at her. He then looked to his father. He had an odd grin on his face, like he was seeing something bigger and better than himself. Sirius was looking much better than any of the times Harry had seen him. Remus, of course had less scars on his face and looked happy.

"Well, at least you didn't read the real history books, thank Merlin." His son and nephew laughed slightly. But then his son grew serious, got closer and lifted up his hair.

"Why don't I have a scar like yours?" It was such an innocent question. Every boy wanted to be like their father, especially physical attributes. He looked up and could tell that the people he most wanted to see were also looking at the scar.

"Jamie, this scar was made by a very bad man, the same bad man I killed. I hope to god or whichever higher being out there that you will NEVER have a scar like mine."

"Did it hurt?"

"I was very young, younger than you but I assume that it did very much hurt."

His firstborn son was never a serious person. But in this moment the seven year old thought really hard about that scar and was deadly serious. "I got to meet Grandpa but not Grandma, the one baby sissy is named after."

"Turn around slowly and take a look." Harry said with a small sad chuckle. His son did so and stared. Then turned back around.

"She's beautiful." Harry looked up and saw that the girl had blushed.

"Yes she is." Harry said. "Now I think its about time we get back to our own time. Mommy is worried sick and Teddy is going to question you mercilessly."

"Luna?" Looking around, he found Luna looking at the air through her glasses from her Hogwarts years. "Luna, what are you doing?" He said exasperated.

"Harry! The Nargles here are a completely different color!" Luna was excited just as she was when she was younger. She had children of her own and was still exactly the same. But Harry didn't feel that they should be like this right now. They needed to leave.

"Yes Luna that's unbelievable." Harry said in a slightly sarcastic tone. Luna just huffed, and moved toward the professors table. They met in the middle along with a Professor Dumbledore.

"Thank you for taking care of them sir." Harry said slightly choked up. He never got a proper goodbye with a living Dumbledore. The Kings Cross Station was not necessarily the same.

"You have a very rambunctious son and it seems a nephew as well." Dumbledore said smiling.

"Thank you sir. I suggest you obliviate everyone here after we leave."

"I will be doing just that." He said lightly. "Have a safe trip."

Luna went down on her knees. "Okay boys. I need the time turner back." James pulled it out of his pocket. "Lets not do this anymore okay?"

"Okay." They said again. While Luna fixed the Time Turner, Harry picked up his son and nephew and turned around for one final time towards the Gryffindor table. The faces staring back at him, of his parents, godfather, and mentor they were in awe of course but he saw a bit of pride in their faces too. Then he looked over to the Slytherin table. There was Snape thinking as quick as possible. There was anger, lots of it.

"Come on Harry." Luna said slightly. She knew what he was thinking. "It doesn't bode well to dwell on the past. Especially us. Look to the future." Luna wound the turner around their necks and a golden light engulfed them.

James and Lily turned around and finally looked at each other. They were both in shock.

"He looked like me." "He had my eyes." They both said to each other. There was a growing understanding between the two of them. A bright light and an "OBLIVIATE" rocked the Great Hall.

Instead of looking confused, James and Lily still found themselves looking at one another and feeling as though there was something greater than the two of them that involved them, that pulled them together.

The Sorting was over. The Feast was over. But something stranger and stronger than magic happened that night. Only two people had but a feeling on why.

For the power of love leaves a trace indestructible by magic.


End file.
